My Hime- Yusuke's Story
by baby-kitsune9
Summary: he was sick, mindless with his grief. he had caused the death of the only person in the world that he had ever really cared about- and yet...the moment he had found her it was like something just happened to click back into place. She became his new reason to live, to fight. Who cared if she wasn't his little sister? He certainly didn't. Yusuke/OC story. rated M. R&R please!
1. Chapter 1

_Dear Yusuke,_

He stared at the two words like he did every time he sat down and slipped the letter out of his wallet. The once pristine white had slowly aged over the years and become a wrinkled and crinkly yellow-ish color as he slowly blinked his dark eyes and attempted to focus on the words.

Not that he really needed to read the letter again- he knew all of the words by heart.

 _I don't know if you'll read this... Or if you even care-_

His heart constricting in his chest as he continued on, his dark eyes scanning the ink scribbled onto the paper in a neat and tidy manner as he continued to read,

 _I'm sorry I called you weak._

His eyes blurring at the simple apology that he would never hear voiced, he tried to blink away the wetness gathering at the corners of his eyes, blurring the words until they all ran together.

 _I know more than anyone that you aren't weak. You simply lose your cool far too often._

Truer words had never been spoken, he mused darkly as his mind taunted. _And truer words would never be spoken from the same lips again. We killed her, remember?_

Of course he remembered. How could he not? It was one of the most horrifying things that had ever happened to him- to _them_. He had been her protector. Her refuge from pain, and sorrow. He had done all that he physically could to keep her safe from harm.

And yet...

It had never been enough.

Between his dad, his mom, the physical and mental abuse, school and his work- he had never really had a chance now had he? He had attempted the impossible and been spread far too thin. That was why she was dead now.

His eyes locked onto the next words as if they were a sacred mantra or prayer. And perhaps to him they were. But dammit after everything that had happened between them before she had died, didn't he at least deserve to know how she had really felt about him?

 _And that's fine. I still love you-_

Love?

What the hell had she known about love? All she had ever experienced was the darker and more negative side of the emotion. Whether it had been at his hands or another's. And yet- the words were so fucking confusing to him.

How could she have loved him?

He was stupid.

Uneducated.

A bastard.

A punk.

And so much more... He was violent, arrogant, egotistical, shallow, cocky- Did he mention he was violent and stupid?

Perhaps it didn't really mattered one way or the other. What's done was done, there was no changing it. No point in whining and bitching over it.

It was over.

Done.

Finished.

A nameless chapter in a nameless book of epic failure's that was his life. Now wasn't that poetic? Maybe he should try writing a damned book about his failures.

He could start with chapter one- his birth and just sort of jot down all of the failures of his life, maybe add a few regrets and then, _Bam!_ he'd have himself a goddamn book.

And even if he didn't, he still had this. This stupid letter from her to remind him of his failures.

 _I love you._

He knew that she had.

 _I'll say it as many times as you want._

She had.

 _I'll say it until you believe me._

He let out a low, hysterical sounding laugh. Oh he had believed it alright. He had believed it with all his goddamn heart and soul. It was impossible for him to believe otherwise, especially since he had spent so much fucking time with her.

He had spent everyday for four long years by her side. That was one thousand, four hundred and sixty days. That was close to thirty five thousand, and forty hours that he had _literally_ spent glued to the side of one girl.

Doing nothing, and yet everything.

They had lived together, slept most nights in the same room (if not the same bed). He on his side, his larger body usually curled around her smaller one. His face usually buried in her thick mass of silken black hair or against the side of her slender neck where he could smell her slightly sweet, floral scent as he slept.

He had always slept the soundest when she was right there with him with his face either in her hair or against her neck. Where he could feel the heat of her body, the softness of her skin, her breath stirring his hair slightly after he settled down for the night with his face buried against her skin.

She had never once complained about his weight. Though she had clocked him plenty of times for not letting her up during the night to go to the bathroom.

Reaching up with a shaky hand, he used it to rub at his face before threading his fingers through his dark hair, taking a moment to push it back away from his eyes like she used to do. It was a habit that he had developed after her death as a means of trying to keep some part of her with him.

He didn't really think about it anymore. And no one bothered to point it out to him because they hadn't really known his habits all that well to begin with. So now when he did it, it was mostly used as a means to comfort or calm himself without anyone knowing.

Which was all well and good he supposed.

As long as it kept him from flipping out. Nothing else mattered. Sighing tiredly, he refolded the letter in his hands, carefully, so as not to accidentally destroy it with his clumsy oafish hands, and then slowly put it back into his wallet and tucked it into it's usual place in his back pocket.

Sitting back for a moment on his hotel bed, he rested the back of his head against the wall and listened to the going's on in the room next to his own.

He could hear Kuwabara griping at Hiei. And Hiei was likely bitching to Kurama.

 _As usual._

The oh so soft chattering between the three was giving him a headache, and if he were feeling alright at the moment- he'd probably get his ass off of his bed and march himself out there and tell the three of them to shut the fuck up. However he wasn't feeling like himself at the moment, his mind felt million's of miles away. His heart was still constricting off and on in his chest.

Causing this abysmal ache in the center of his chest that would neither go away nor settle, making a little bit harder to breathe minute by minute. If it kept up he felt as if he may begin to suffocate.

Maybe he should leave for a while?

Go out on a run or something?

He seriously doubted that he was going to manage to get any rest here tonight since he was feeling all...mopey. _Grrr._ He growled aloud to himself in annoyance as he shifted forward a little bit so that he was leaning away from the wall, his body drawn in on itself.

His long legs touching his chest while he rested his head on one of his knees for a moment as he silently debated with himself. Should he or shouldn't he?

If he left his room now, Kurama and Hiei would get antsy and try to figure out what was wrong with him. Whereas Kuwabara possibly had already picked up something from his sixth sense. Though Yusuke doubted that the ginger would actually voice his thoughts or concerns in a similar way that the demon's might.

Ya know what, fuck this shit. He couldn't sleep and if he bothered to try right now he'd probably wake the other's later, screaming. And not the fun kind either.

No- he'd probably wake up from the same nightmare as usual. His body covered in sweat, his heart pounding, his lungs struggling to breathe as he bolted upright in his bed screaming until he either passed out from hyperventilating or someone slapped him hard enough to wake him.

And even then there was no real guarantee that he wouldn't react oddly and do something like slam his back against the nearest wall and stay there for a good long time.

A wide eyed, sweat drenched, shivering mess.

Now wouldn't that give his demon friends (and Kuwabara) something to talk about. He thought ruefully as he sighed again and finished up his internal debate and then deftly removed himself from his bed and grabbed his jacket and his shoes. And took a moment or so to slip his feet into the loose tennis shoes before he bothered to tie them and then stood up from the bed and slipped on his jacket as he quietly headed towards the door.

The door clicked when he turned the knob, no doubt alerting the others to the fact that he was about to step out if the sudden agonizing silence in the room was anything to go by as he slowly stepped out of his room, careful to avoid locking eyes with one of his friends as he moved towards the room door, leaving out.

He had just reached for the door knob when he heard Kurama's voice call out to him. Tilting his head ever so slightly to look at the red headed human/fox demon hybrid, Yusuke seemed to consider him for a moment or two too long as the fox asked again, "Is everything alright?"

If he were a mind reader like Kuwabara, he'd have heard the big fat mental scream in his head indicating that- no, everything wasn't alright. As it was he could see both Kuwabara and Hiei flinch slightly before masking their expressions so as not to let him know that they were picking anything up from him as he finally replied in a mumbling tone, "Everything is fine. I just can't sleep so I thought that I'd go out."

If he had bothered to stick around for an answer or reply from Kurama of any kind he might have seen the strange look that crossed the fox demon's face as he thinned his lips slightly in annoyance. Obviously able to pick up on subtleties that other's couldn't, Kurama probably knew that he had just been lied too and didn't like it one little bit.

Not that Yusuke cared much whether the fox demon cared or not.

He had too much shit on his mind at the moment to care much about his friend's concern for him or his well being. Yusuke thought as he slipped out of the hotel room and quietly closed the door behind him. After which Kurama slowly lowered his poker cards and placed them face down on the table and cast Kuwabara a quick glance before saying, "Kuwabara."

The ginger haired young man stiffened slightly at the overly pleasant tone the fox demon used when saying his name. _He. Knew. That. Tone._ It was the very same one that his older sister used on him right before she kicked his ass every which way.

"What was wrong with Yusuke?"

"I can't say." Was all that Kuwabara could think of to say in response to the fox demon's question. Especially since he knew all too well what was going on with Urameshi and didn't want to be the one who spilled the beans.

He doubted that Yusuke would appreciate anyone poking around in his business. Especially when he was busy reliving his past.

However his response wasn't one that Kurama nor Hiei seemed to appreciate since he suddenly found himself staring down the business end of Hiei's sword as Kurama shifted slightly in his seat, and crossed his long legs. His emerald eyes glittering dangerously from beneath his long fiery red hair as he propped his chin in his palm and stared at the ginger as he sat with his hands in the air, trying hard not to squirm as Kurama tried again.

"What is wrong with Yusuke?"

Which literally translated to- _Tell me or else-_ in Kuwabara's mind as he replied again in a slightly shaking voice, "I can't say!"

"And why exactly can't you say what is wrong with the detective?" Hiei asked in a snide tone as he pressed the tip of his blade against the human's neck. Kuwabara made a growling sound and pegged the two with a hard look before snapping,

"There are just some things that a person would rather keep secret. So how about the two of you respect that, and back off!" Earning a slightly shocked look from Kurama as the teen slowly pushed Hiei's blade away from his neck and got to his feet and shoved his way past the small fire demon as he made a beeline towards his bedroom in the hopes that he could escape the two before they tortured the crap out of him.


	2. Chapter 2

Yusuke walked into the arena the next day barely able to suppress a tired yawn behind his hand as he walked. Despite being up all night doing various things.

Running, practicing some of the martial arts moves that Genkai had taught him specifically for the Dark Tournament, as well as working on his spirit energy- he hadn't bothered to attempt sleeping even though he had practically run himself into the fucking ground with all his work.

Not that he believed anyone would notice, much less ask him- "Ah, Yusuke. How are you this morning?" Kurama asked in an obnoxious overly chipper tone that made the dark haired teen roll his eyes and think, _Ugh- Does he have to be a morning person?_ As Kurama came out of practically nowhere and fell into step beside the spirit detective.

Yusuke didn't really answer him, though he did cast him a very peculiar look through tired, dull brown eyes.

But then Kurama hadn't really expected him to say anything, not with how exhausted he looked to the fox demon/human hybrid. However due to the fact that they were supposed to be a team- he felt he should at least keep tabs on the teen. Even if it did more or less mean stalking him just to figure out what he did when no one was around. Especially in a place with so many demons around.

One wrong move around the demons on the island and Team Urameshi could very well lose it's star fighter.

Could, of course being the operative word as Hiei finally made an appearance along with Kuwabara and the masked fighter. Each of them falling into step either beside or behind Yusuke as he walked.

"You look tired detective." Hiei said after taking a moment to study the dark circles under Yusuke's eyes.

Yusuke cast him a brief glance as if to say, _Tired or not I can still kick your ass shrimp_. Which made Hiei growl in annoyance and turn his head away with his nose in the air.

Like any punk who thought themselves better than others. Hiei was acting true to his demonic character. Yusuke supposed as they rounded a corner to head down to the arena and something suddenly slammed into him with enough force to almost knock him back into Kuwabara.

He grunted softly and automatically brought his arms up to grab the thing that had slammed into him and blinked as he glanced down and noted with some vague amusement that it wasn't a 'thing' that had slammed into him, but a person.

 _Not just any goddamn person- a girl._ His mind hissed at him as his manners automatically kicked in.

"Whoa, slow down there doll. You nearly bowled me over." He said as he slowly started to put the girl away form him when she tilted her head back to look up at him from under long black bangs. Her teal/green colored eyes locking with his own as his heart made a sudden leap up into his mouth.

His grip on her arms tightened a bit.

Not enough to truly hurt her, thank god, but enough to make her look uncomfortable for a moment. Which was all the time that he needed to finish looking her over.

She was young, perhaps a year or two younger than himself. She had drop dead gorgeous features, oddly akin to Kurama's human form. Her body was slightly smaller than his own- the top of her head barely reaching his collarbone. Her thick dark hair hung over her shoulder in a thick braid that by his calculation wound end around the small of her back.

She wasn't thin. But wasn't exactly fat either.

Her body's build was at that happy medium between the two. Probably due to her age. And the curves of her body, though he had felt them only briefly, were more than enough to be found attractive by anything male.

All in all she was a beautiful girl.

But that wasn't what nearly had him grabbing her up and tossing her over his shoulder and running out of the arena like hellfire was trailing after him.

No- as pretty as she was, as pleasant and attractive as he found her- those things weren't what had his fingers flexing against her shirtsleeves.

It was her eyes.

That distinct, yet oddly lovely shade of both teal/green combined. Only one other person he had ever met had had eyes the same exact color as this girl's. And that had been _her._

The one that he had failed to protect.

The one true love of his life.

He was about to release her and walk away, now before it was too late for them both, when he was jolted out of his thoughts by her small hands coming up to very gently to grasp his wrists in her own causing an electric shock to run though him.

Exhaling his breath left his lungs in a soft hiss as he abruptly let her go and rubbed at his hands in a subconscious gesture in an effort to alleviate the strange feeling of electricity running through his hands of where she had touched him as he muttered an almost inaudible, "Sorry."

The girl said nothing. She didn't really have too. Yusuke could see the spark of awareness in her eyes, though she quickly masked it.

He motioned to the others to go on ahead, earning a combo of curious/funny looks from his friends before they walked on only to stop several feet away and look back at him. Wondering just what the hell he was doing when back there when they had a tournament to win.

The moment everyone was out of earshot, Yusuke looked at the girl again. His dark eyes taking in everything that his tired mind could think of to help him find her again later. Everything from her height, to the details of her clothing (like size, style, and color) was carefully memorized as he asked softly.

"What's your name?" It wasn't so much as a question as it was a demand. Though it sounded more like one than it did the other.

She moved her lips as if she were going to answer him, however there was no sound behind the action which caused his eyes to narrow slightly as he thinned his lips slightly in displeasure before opening his mouth to ask again when a demon guy came running up to the two of them, startling them both.

Yusuke's first instinct the moment the demon ran up to them was to reach out and snatch the girl away from the guy and hold her closely against his side and pin the son of a bitch with one of his more menacing glares until he felt so intimidated that he ran off again, however the moment that the guy opened his mouth- he gave Yusuke the very thing he had wanted to know.

The girl's name.

Yuki.

The demon took the girl's hand in his and with a cautious look towards Yusuke, pulled her away from him and then wrapped an arm around her slender shoulders as he babbled, "Yuki-girl, you shouldn't ta be running around unescorted! You could get your little self into trouble, ya know."

Yuki didn't seem all that concerned. But it didn't stop the demon from carrying on, "Now lass, you're a sweet little thing but tis far too dangerous for ya to be wandering around by yerself. So you just stick to my side girly, and ol Jin will take care of ya." The demon said as he fondly ruffled the girl's hair and gave her a fanged grin before taking her small hand in his own and began to tug her along behind him as he started walking away.

Not wanting 'Jin' to take off with Yuki just yet Yusuke thought about yelling at the bastard or something but in the end decided that for now this might be for the best.

He couldn't afford to be distracted with his upcoming match. But once it was done...

He cast a glance over his shoulder at Yuki's back and felt his lips curve just a little bit at the corners. After the fight was an entirely different story.

He would have more than enough free time to track Yuki down and get to know her a bit. Turning back around, he shoved his hands into his pants pockets and started walking, not really realizing that the others had seen the whole damned exchange.


	3. Chapter 3

Jin had managed to get Yuki-girl away from team Urameshi's leader just in time in the wind demon's opinion. Especially since not even a few moment's later, the poor girl doubled over and began retching. Either due to her present condition or due to the fact that the human male's spirit energy was so stifling that it had made her ill.

Either way, he'd gotten to her just in time it seemed.

Careful to stay out of her way as she emptied the contents of her probably already empty stomach, Jin held back her long silken hair and absently rubbed the girl's back in what he _hoped_ was a soothing manner. He never really knew if what he was doing was helping or just making things worse.

In fact Toya was much better at handling situations like this one.

And Jin...

Well he was fairly good at running around like a chicken with it's head cut off and making a nuisance of himself. Albit he didn't mean to do so, but usually in situations when Yuki became ill- he just couldn't seem to either get out of the way fast enough or remain calm enough to be of any real help to anyone.

Why the first time the poor girl had fallen ill, he had thought she was dying.

So much so that he'd flopped himself down on the ground next to her feverish body and gathered her close to his body and had all but screamed his flipping head off.

If he hadn't have been found by Rinku who had taken the little human gal from him and checked her while telling him to knock _off the shit_ and go get some damn ice, he probably would have wound up just another victim of Rinku's deadly yo-yo's.

Though in Jin's defense, Yuki-girl was the absolute first human that he or the other's had ever come across that wasn't afraid of them.

In fact, the little human was just so damned sweet that to him it appeared as if she didn't have the common sense that god gave a flea. The very first time he had met her, she had been a tiny little mite, no older than three or four. And she had somehow mysteriously managed to wind up in demon world through a tiny crack in the barrio that separated demon world from the human world.

He had been playing at the time. Flying here and there and using his wind to uproot tree's and the like that he'd accidentally uprooted the tree that she had been climbing and had been about to toss it when he had felt eyes on him and his ears had began to wiggle a bit at the uncomfortable sensation mere moments before he'd heard a peeved little voice growl out, "You mind putting me down?" right next to his ear, nearly causing him to scream and drop the tree with her in it.

Luckily he hadn't dropped the tree or the wee lass would have suffered great injury if not more. Instead he had twisted around until he was face to face with this tiny little person- to be honest he'd never seen a human up close before. Especially a little human since the bigger ones tended to grab the little one's and hide them anytime they believed a demon was running amok the countryside.

So naturally he'd been curious.

What demon worth anything wouldn't be curious about this tiny little thing? He wondered to himself as he had reached out and very carefully, so as not to accidentally hurt her or drop her, took hold of her and pulled her out of the tree and then dropped it while shifting his body so that he could lie on his back in mid air and placed her carefully on his stomach, hoping that she would be safe there.

Where he had kept her for a good portion of the day and well into the night, just talking. Well more like interrogating her when he wasn't occasionally poking her in the stomach or ribs or something.

His first assumption upon finding her was that she was another demon like himself, but she lacked the things that made a demon. The characteristics or lack there of should have been a dead give away as to what she really was, but like he had said before- he'd never _seen_ a tiny human before.

Still that being said, he had checked her for fangs, pointy ears (he was sort of hoping that she was a wind demon like him since females of his kind were incredibly rare) and even claws. Which he had to say- for a human- she'd had sharp little nails.

Nothing at all like a demon's mind you, but sharp enough to be painful if used on him. And she had used them on him a score of times. Usually when trying to straighten his wild mane of red hair a bit, or when his back really itched- Hn, he was getting a bit off topic here wasn't he?

Anyways, he had made friends with the wee human girl- not for any nefarious reasons- to be honest he had nothing nefarious planned. He simply liked her company.

And about a year or so after he had met her, the others had wandered into his territory.

Toya, Rinku, and Chu.

They hadn't been friends then. In fact he had been in the middle of a visit with his little human when they had wandered into his territory, and scared the ever loving hell out of him. He'd grabbed Yuki up so fast when the first attack had happened that the girl didn't even have time to register what had been going on much less scream as he took to the air. His only thought had been to get her as far away from the dangerous trio as possible since he couldn't protect himself and her too.

And he had almost gotten her completely to safety too. Until stupid Toya had trapped him in a net, causing him to drop Yuki.

His hand stilled against her back for a moment as he remembered the sound of her frightened scream as she had fell from his grasp. His violet eyes had gone wide in his pale face, his clawed finger tips had hooked through some of the netting as his heart had nearly stopped right then and there as he imagined her small body hitting the tree skewered ground below.

He imagined the sweetly copper scent of her blood- something that he'd become almost intimately knowledgeable about in his time with her since she was so fucking awkward. Always tripping over her own feet and falling down hills and such.

Always covered in scratches, gnashes and bruises.

He imagined the usually rhythmic sound of her heart suddenly ceasing to beat and had screamed in rage. Rage for the little girl he had befriended so foolishly. Rage for not keeping her safe from harm like he had promised he would. But most of all, he had screamed in rage for the small light her life provided his dark world- being snuffed out far too soon.

However she had never hit the ground, while he was busy imagining the worst and freaking out- Toya and Chu had seen her tiny figure heading towards the ground and both had moved at break neck speed to catch her as she had somehow managed to snag a tree branch some ways from the ground and halt her fall for a few minutes, allowing the two demons to get into position under her and catch her.

And just like that the fight had been over for him. But it hadn't come without it's own price. While he had sustained little more than cuts and bruises here and there, little Yuki had sustained far worse.

Broken ribs, a fractured wrist, one of her legs had somehow been pulled out of joint at the hip. And the entire time he had hung from the net, watching as Toya did what he could to provide medical aid to the little lass as soon as she was out of the tree.

Jin must have hung there for what felt like lifetimes. Days, hours, weeks, months, years- time had slowed to a snail's pace for him as he had watched Toya treat his little friend. And with every twitch and pained cry she had given, his heart had broken a little bit inside, until finally after what felt like forever, Chu had walked over to the rope supporting the net holding him and had used one of his knives to cut through it before Toya or Rinku could so much as protest.

Dropping the furious wind demon from where he'd been down to the ground where he ran over to Yuki's still form and had all but snatched her up in his arms and began growling at the three.

The sound growing louder and louder with the more time he spent watching them with unblinking eyes as he had used his spirit energy to see if he could read Yuki for signs of life. Not really bothering to trust his nose or his ears at that very moment because his mind was still flashing images of her death to him, confusing him as much as it was angering him.

But his spirit energy had been able to draw out some of her own, proving to him that she wasn't dead. Which was a relief, he supposed but he still hadn't have been too terribly happy with the three invaders that had attacked him.

In fact he had been about to kill the whole lot of them for what they had caused, but he had stilled his hand when Toya had slipped some medicinal herbs into his hand and told him to use them to care for Yuki and then had politely bowed and turned to leave.

Jin however had had other thoughts, and had bared his fangs and had all but snarled at the lot of them about taking responsibility for their damned actions (a little something that he'd picked up from spending time with Yuki).

They were the one's who had almost murdered an innocent little girl. And they were damn well going to stick around and _help him_ care for her until she was well enough to decide what their fate should be.

She had that right.

Or at least she would have if she had been a demon, however he had conveniently left that little bit of information out since it was more than apparent that they believed Yuki was just another demon like themselves.

They had spent almost a week alternating between hunting for food, medicinal herbs and plants, while Jin had taken careful precautions to see to it that Yuki had fruit and other things from human world to eat once she was strong enough.

He had even slipped through the crack that she used to come see him so that he could procure things for her more easily.

He had even gone to her home. It was a nice, quiet place with lots of woods, some natural lakes, ponds, creeks and even waterfalls. Where as her home rested somewhere in the middle of the wilderness surrounding it. It was a large home- well, large for just one person- and no one had been there.

No mother.

No father.

Not even a sibling or elderly human was in sight.

And after grabbing some things, pots, pans, some food out of the metal beast's belly, as well as some other things- clothing, towels, he'd even found a nice big bag to carry everything in.

Once he was finished packing up some of the things he'd come to her home to get he had slipped out the door and started back towards the barrier when he'd seen an odd little trail leading just off to the side of the trail that he had used to get to her home.

Curious about where it led, he had followed it. An odd feeling of dread settling in the pit of his stomach with each step that he took further into the woods.

He'd gone barely a mile in a half when he'd finally reached his destination. A secluded area, seemingly cut off from the surrounding woods and such by a small, old wooden and a small stone wall fence. Stepping into it, he noted the various little statues and stones and wondered idly if this was an odd human decoration or something until he had come across some bigger stones.

Some with etchings and writing on them.

Hunkering down in front of one of them he stared at it for a moment before realizing that it bore names. Human names. As well as dates and some even had little etchings of hearts, wings and so on. All scratched deeply into the stones. Realization set in pretty damn quick after his discovery.

That he was standing in a human graveyard.

And the stone he had been sub consciously reading bore the imprint of Yuki's mother and father's names upon it along with the dates of their deaths. Which had been just days before she had first stumbled across the barrier and into demon world and met him.

Yuki was an orphan.

No wonder the little lass hardly wanted to leave him everyday when he returned her to the place where she slipped through the barrier to come see him.

Her family was gone. There was really nothing left for her here.

Running his fingers through his wild mane in an anxious manner, Jin sighed and sat himself down on a small patch of grass next to the stone bearing Yuki's parent's name and he began talking.

 _Slowly_ , for once in his life. After all he wished for her family to hear his voice and understand him since spirits and the like were funny creatures indeed.

Now demons had their own traditions when it came to the dead.

Some buried their loved ones, some ate them, some burned them, and others sank their loved one's bodies in the clearest, deepest water that they could find so that the body could return to whence it came.

Wind demons like himself were different in many regards.

When they died, their physical bodies returned to the wind from whence they were first created. It was wind that gave them power in life. And in death it was what allowed them to remain a part of the world, so that they could watch over their loved ones even if they had no physical existence anymore with which to do so.

So it only seemed natural to him to confess just how fond he was of little Yuki. He had wanted the restless spirits he could feel hovering about the place to understand that he cared for the girl as if she were his own little sister or something.

He loved her in a way that very few demons could actually love a human without destroying said human.

And then he had told them of the incident with Toya, Chu and Rinku (not that he felt he could actually hide such a thing- those restless spirits could easily become vengeful spirits and come after him). He explained that he was hiding the fact that Yuki was a human from them in order to protect her.

How instead of leaving her defenseless as one might have assumed he did whenever he had gone to get her some food and such, he had used an old spell from his homeland and attached it to Yuki so that if something should happen to her physically or emotionally- he would automatically know and be able to teleport straight to her side.

He was as open and honest with the spirit's of his young human's family as he possibly could be.

Even going so far as to swear a blood oath to them that they didn't need to worry too much about her- he would always protect her should she need him to.

And with that, his talk with her family's spirits concluded, he politely excused himself as he had tipped his head back and looked up at the sky, noting that it was growing dark and he had been gone for quite some time.

Imagine his surprise upon returning back to where the other's were, to find Yuki sitting propped up against Chu's leather clad leg as the demon had slowly cut up a few pieces of fruit for her to eat. Clutching tightly at the fur blanket that Jin had provided for her, holding it up around her bandaged chest. Her thick dark hair mussed from her long rest as he had walked back into the clearing with the bag of goodies and automatically dropped it so that he could move to kneel next to her and rest his forehead against hers as he grinned.

She never questioned him where he had been that day. Possibly because she had been more than a little bit busy handing off some of the fruit that Chu had cut up for her to himself, Toya and Rinku.

Shortly after that, once she had started moving around on her own again, Jin had told her that she needed to decide on what to do about the three. And had been more than a little upset when she had simply stated, "Those three can leave if they want. There's no reason for them to feel badly about something that is simply their nature Jin."

To which he had argued. Strenuously in fact, that yes, they _should_ feel badly for almost killing her. And no- she shouldn't let them get away with it.

To which she had merely sighed and fallen silent, knowing that he was much like a dog with a bone when he got like this, and had simply told him to give her a few days to think.

Which he did. And when he had finally asked her again about what they should do with the three, he could practically sense the three tensing up for a fight when Yuki had taken the wind right out of all their sails by simply stating, "We're going to be friends. _All of us_. Which means no more fighting unless you're just playing around. I don't want any of you accidentally hurting each other or worse. Understand?"

Oh they had understood alright. Jin thought as he had practically goggled at her reply to his question. He had never been more shocked before in his life. Really he hadn't. And after casting a quick look at the others, all of whom were sitting around the fire gaping at her like a bunch of loons, he suddenly felt like this was the best choice for dealing with them.

Besides if they were to become friends then it meant that he could draw out their punishment indefinitely without killing any of them. Something that he found quite devious of his Yuki. Especially since it was something that she obviously felt he would enjoy immensely.

Seeing that Yuki was finally done retching, the wind demon reached out and carefully grasped the young girl's arm in his hand and helped her stay upright when she began to weave just a wee bit. "Feel a bit better now, little one?" He asked in a gentle tone. Making sure to speak slowly just in case her latest bought of sickness had caused her to develop a little bit of a headache.

Especially since she often times tended to become a little bit violent when she had really bad headaches.

She made a low humming sound as he wrapped an arm around her slender frame and the two of them began walking again towards the arena where he and the others were supposed to be fighting today. Smoothing back her slightly damp hair from her face, he crooned in what he hoped was a comforting tone.

"Don't worry none girly. It won't be much longer now until we have our answers..." He said before placing a chaste kiss on her temple as they finally reached the arena.

The roar of the crowd today was just as deafening as it was the day before, and the day before that and so on. The loud sound causing Yuki to jump nearly out of her skin as he ducked his head slightly so that he was more or less hiding her from the view of many of the demons that they wound up passing by as he helped to maneuver her over to where the rest of their team was waiting.

Barely bothering to cast a glance towards the opposite team to see who they were supposed to be fighting today. Truth be told, it didn't really matter who they fought- he and the others had decided to participate in the dark tournament with the hope of using their one wish to learn the identity of the person/person's responsible for attacking and raping her well over a month in a half ago while they had been waiting for her to return home from school.

She had been missing for exactly seven days before he and the others had finally managed to find her laying just a mile or so from her home in a small puddle of her own blood, her throat slashed- bruises, scratches and cuts littering her unclothed body.

Her eyes staring blankly ahead, her expression had been an odd combination of horror and pain. But that by far wasn't the worst of it- the worst of the situation aside from finding her as she was had been that they were able to _smell_ exactly what had been done to her.

Jin still remembered the broken keening sound he had made as he had dropped down to the ground next to her and slowly gathered her almost lifeless body into his arms.

Uncaring of the fact that her blood was staining his clothing and skin as he had placed his head against her small breasts and listened to the faint fluttering beat of her heart as Toya came over an dropped down beside him and had Chu pretty much pry his hands from her so that her neck wound could be tended too before she perished from blood loss.

However the wound wasn't meant to be immediately fatal.

Jin had known that before he had even touched her.

The wound had been meant to only knick the artery in her throat so that instead of a quick and almost painless death, she would suffer for hours before succumbing to her fate.

And then there was the smell to deal with.

The scent of freshly spilled virgin blood mixed with a man's musk and female pheromones.

A _human_ man's musk stuck to her skin as if it were her own. Jin recalled vaguely fighting with Chu to get to her, the need to erase the scent from his human friend's young body was triggering his instincts on a dangerous level. He might have actually succeeded in getting his hands on her so that he could do as his instinct demanded, however as soon as Toya finished closing the wound on her neck he had then tuned to Jin and right before the wind demon could so much as touch her- he had been ruthlessly rendered unable to move.

 _"Is this really what you should be doing now Jin? Throwing a fit?"_ The words had been spoken quietly, yet held as much sting to them as a whip slicing through his skin. _"Yuki needs to be tended to. Not fought over."_

 _She is a person_.

He knew that.

 _Not an object_.

He knew that too.

 _She would need time_.

Dammit he was aware of that fact! It didn't make things any less difficult for him though. He was Jin. The first wind demon to befriend a small human girl and adopt her as his own kin.

And the day that he had figured out that she was pregnant with her rapists/would be killer's child...was the day that he had cried endlessly for being unable to keep his blood promise to her family.

He had never quite felt like such a failure before except for the time when he had almost lost her. That was why he and the others were participating in the Dark Tournament. It wasn't for fame, glory or fortune like many other's participating.

He wanted a name and location so that he and the others could personally pay a visit to the sorry piece of shit that had stripped Yuki of her innocence so brutally and almost killed her.

He wanted to look the fucker in the face as he killed him for messing up her life.


	4. Chapter 4

Yusuke's dark eyes wandered, not for the first time in so many minutes, along row after row after row of faceless demons and human's sitting in the stands waiting to watch him and his friends get picked apart by their opponent's. Or to see him and his friends pick someone else apart- whichever happened to occur first.

At the moment he felt too goddamn tired to really care.

And then out of the corner of his eye he caught a faint glimpse of fiery red and turned to see who had just entered the arena. His eyes narrowing slightly when he noted that it was the demon from before.

The one who had come after the girl that he had been trying to speak too, Yuki.

The demon was moving strangely, his broad shoulders were hunched, his spine bowed a bit- making him appear shorter and smaller than he actually was. In fact the way he was moving was akin to how one would act if they were helping- twisting his body around to give the demon his total and utter attention as he caught a faint glimpse of teal colored clothe and blinked in puzzlement.

Yuki had been wearing a teal colored long sleeved shirt when he had run into her.

 _Don't tell me that guy is bringing her ringside_. Yusuke thought to himself as the demon slowly began to pass by him and the rest of his team, finally giving him a small looksee at what the person the demon seemed to be trying to shield from everyone.

It was indeed Yuki, Yusuke thought dismally as his dark eyes latched onto what he could see of her as the demon passed.

Yuki looked pale, and somewhat sickly to him. A far cry from the healthy looking young woman that he had met when he had first run into her. Or she into him.

Whatever.

The point was that she didn't look too good to him. Especially if the demon guy was more or less holding her up as they walked together.

The demon paused a moment to look around as one of his teammates, a kid about twelve years old if his appearance was anything to go by, ran up to the red haired demon walking with Yuki and took a moment to look between them for a second before running back to his friends and grabbing the bare arm of the tall, hulking guy with the blue Mohawk, and pointed at the red haired demon and the girl.

Curious about what the guy planned to do- Especially after some of the horror stories he had been told by Kurama and Hiei- Yusuke watched the exchange with great interest as the big guy walked over to the two and bent slightly at the waist and scooped the girl up in his arms.

Giving the red haired demon a chance to loosen himself up a tad bit and finally relax as the big guy carried Yuki over to where the rest of his friends were waiting and watched as the guy placed the girl carefully on a bench next to a small cooler that one of them had apparently dragged out with them.

The big guy remained in close proximity to the girl for several moment's longer than he should have, in Yusuke's opinion. His larger body blocking Yuki from Yusuke's view.

Annoying the ever loving hell out of the teen.

Then just like that, the guy left her and it was finally time for the first match to begin. Up first was Kuwabara and Rinku...whoever the hell that was.

Kuwabara climbed into the ring as the young kid- demon- climbed up and looked his schoolmate over for a second before pulling out a couple of yo-yo's and beginning to fiddle with them as the two started going back and forth. Talking smack.

Yusuke barely paid any attention to the two moron's since his eyes were still glued to Yuki who was still sitting on the bench across the ring from himself and his team.

She had a demon that looked like a cross between a human and a fish, sitting next to her. The guy's pale eyes alternating between watching the fight and Yuki with a slightly worried expression.

 _So that's how it is,_ Yusuke thought to himself as he watched the demon continue to alternate between what was going on in the ring and the girl. His mind overturning specific bits of information as he watched the two interact. Finally coming to one of two possible conclusion's as to why Yuki was with the demon's.

Either she was mated to one. Which wasn't entirely impossible since Koenma had informed him that such things did occasionally occur. Even though most didn't end well for the human.

And then there was the second possible reason for her being ringside. And that reason was that the demon's were her friends. Possibly even considered to be her family, depending on how close they were. And from the looks of things- they were close, very much so, however from what he was seeing- they weren't quite as close as a mated pair would be.

Especially since demon's reacted to being mated differently. Some almost reacting obsessively.

He wasn't seeing obsession. Though he was seeing a great deal of protectiveness and caution when each of the opposing team got near her. They were treating her like she was made of glass or something.

Easy to damage and to break.

To be perfectly honest he had only seen such reactions in men back home in human world, and usually it was only if their significant other was either ill or expecting. Murmuring something to himself under his breath, he watched as the guy with the mowhawk handed a small bottled drink to Yuki as well as what looked like...

Saltines?

The appearance of the crackers tugged at a long forgotten memory of his mother sitting at their old home's dining room table.

Her shoulder's had been hunched a bit as she nibbled at a saltine as he- four year old Yusuke- had slipped from his bed late one night to go and get a drink of water to help him sleep only to find his mother wide awake at three a.m.

Sitting at the table, nibbling on some crackers while she tried to calm her upset stomach.

She had been sick off and on for weeks now and was beginning to look like she was losing weight too. It was concerning to him, but he knew that if he attempted to try and speak to her about it she'd probably pop him one across the back of the head.

So instead he had merely peeked in at her to check on her before fetching his water and then returned and sat himself down at the table across from her. Causing her dark eyes to flicker to his small face as he settled himself as comfortably as he could on the hard floor and asked in him most grown up voice, "Ya got something to tell me?"

It had taken him half an hour of coaxing and prompting before the woman had finally muttered, "I'm pregnant..."

Yusuke hadn't replied to her words. He had been four for fucks sake, he knew nothing about girls and babies. So in his opinion checking in on his mom and making sure that she was alright while getting her to tell him what was wrong with her- had pretty much meant that he had lived up to his duty as her little man of the house.

At least until he had began asking others questions and doing his own sort of research on how to care for his mom and the baby.

But that was sort of a different story and had little to nothing to do with here and now.

Looking back across the ring at Yuki, he cocked his head to the side a little bit, only vaguely aware that Kuwabara was getting his ass handed to him by the little kid- something he would use to blackmail the bastard later, should he and his weird morals try to get in Yusuke's way- as he thought for a moment on how he could figure out what was up with Yuki before the answer hit him.

 _Duh_ , he practically said to himself as he took a moment to face palm.

The answer to his question was so simple that even someone as dumb as a chip should have been able to come up with an answer. Which mainly consisted of this- all living things had specific spirit energy signatures. And for the past few months before he had left to go train for the Dark Tournament with Genkai, he had been messing around with his and attempting to get a feel for certain signatures.

Sick people.

Dying people.

Even people who were pregnant, all had different energy signatures. All he had to do was focus for a minute or so uninterrupted and he'd know what was up with Yuki.

After all, if he was going to attempt some sort of relationship with her he wanted no weird or potentially _nasty_ surprises popping up later on.


	5. Chapter 5

_Focus._

 _Compress._

 _Single out the target and then...release._ Yusuke thought as he did just that, focusing, and compressing his spirit energy until he was ready to release it bit by bit until he could slowly and carefully drag out some of Yuki's spirit energy. Assuming of course that she knew how to use her spirit energy.

And even if he didn't, there were other tale-tale ways to see if she was pregnant.

Like morning sickness. And then there was weird food cravings, and depending on how far along she was if she were indeed pregnant- there was also the fact that she may lactate, or that her stomach may begin to develop a slight swell where the baby was.

If he wasn't able to tell anything he could try telling via those ways and if none of those worked... Well he could always kidnap her and force her to take a test just for the hell of it.

Sure it was an odd thing for a kidnapper to do, but what the hell? He doubted any authorities residing on the island (if any at all) would care overly much should someone make the mistake of even bothering to call them.

Inhaling, he focused his energy on his eyes- like he had been taught to do by Genkai- hoping that he could do this right the first time since continuous useage of spirit energy focused on one's eyes could cause one of several incredibly bad things to happen.

Blindness, both temporary and permanent. Severe injury to the brain- like aneurysms could occur. Along with a sudden build up of pressure that could cause one or both eyes to pop right out of their sockets as well as some damage to the nerves and so on.

Feeling a sudden swell in spirit energy, Hiei and Kurama both chanced a quick glance in Yusuke's direction- noting that the swell in power was emanating from him. Both demon's frowned, unable to figure out what the spirit detective was doing.

Hiei began to take a step towards the teen to demand he tell him what he was doing. Although he hated to admit it, the human's energy signature was grating on his already frayed nerves. Making him want to lash out at the fool however the feel of Kurama's hand upon his shoulder stilled him in mid motion.

Glancing up at the red head, Hiei frowned when he saw the fox demon slowly shake his head no.

He was also becoming a tad bit nervous because of Yusuke's energy, however he got a vague inkling of what the teen was attempting just by looking over at him and studying him for a moment.

Kurama was fairly good at reading people and right now everything about Yusuke practically screamed- hormonal male on the prowl- to him. And from the looks of where he was focusing his attention... The fox demon/human hybrid looked across the ring at the dark haired young girl sitting on the bench, and frowned a little bit.

Don't get him wrong, he knew all too well the pull of the opposite sex had on young human males. He'd felt the pull of such things himself in his current form. And as nice as some girl's could be, they were a distraction.

A serious distraction that could be used against them if Yusuke wasn't careful. Not that he didn't see what Yusuke found so appealing about the girl. She was rather pleasing to look upon, and from what faint hints of smell his sharp nose could detect, her scent was also very pleasant.

A combination of chamomile, vanilla, honeysuckle, and night blooming jasmine.

Now that he really thought about it, her unique scent was interestingly pleasant. Almost as if it had been inhanced in some way to cause those of the male gender to simply drop what they were doing and take notice of her. It was peculiar. It was curious.

It- It was beginning to send chills down his spine!

 _Focus Kurama_ , he silently berated himself as he gave a slight shake of his head as he willed himself to forget her smell despite knowing that it was probably a futile endeavor.

If he were to leave the arena later today, he would likely automatically find himself searching the island for the girl just to appease his curiosity about her.

It had been known to happen before. And he had long learned that the likelihood of such an event happening again were near staggering in number. It was simply as if his inner demon couldn't help but place him in the most interesting (and sometimes most bizarre) of situations.

Not that it mattered much...

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Yuki munched on another saltine as she watched Rinku's match with interest.

The kiddo wasn't half bad. But then neither was the ginger haired guy he was beating the crap out of. Which was saying a lot considering that the guy was beginning to run low on spirit energy. And Rinku's childish nature coupled with his yo-yo's were positively lethal.

She watched as the ginger haired guy was slammed into the floor of the ring, cringing somewhat when she thought she heard his bones begin to break in various places.

Poor guy, he was going to be useless to his team for the rest of the tournament. She thought with sympathy as she finished eating the cracker she'd been chewing on and instead made an attempt to watch the gruesome death match knowing that she'd likely prove to be a disappointment to her friends if she didn't.

After all, the entire reason they had wanted to fight in the first place was because of her.

Or rather because of what had happened to her.

The ginger hit the floor of the ring just a few feet from her and was trying to keep himself from being dragged back in by Rinku whom had one of his yo-yo's wrapped around the guy's ankles and was pulling hard enough to dislocate or shatter something if the pained look on the ginger guy's face was anything to go by.

Well, that aside from the screaming and swearing.

Honestly... Did that guy think he could really get away with yelling at Rinku like that? Why she was of half a mind to- without realizing that she was getting to her feet, she quietly made her way over to where the ginger haired guy was clutching at the stone and before Chu, Toya, or even Jin could react- she reared back her arm and had slapped the guy.

In the ring, Rinku stopped yanking on his opponent just long enough to gape at Yuki in shock and disbelief. After all in all the years he'd known the human girl he'd never seen her do such a thing. Sure she might occasionally step on someone's foot or even throw shoes or something at em, but she usually tended not to physically hurt anyone no matter how badly they hurt her.

It was as if she just couldn't do it.

Exhaling a shaky breath, he took a moment to look around and noted that he wasn't the only one gaping at her either, everyone in the arena who had seen her slap the other guy was currently gaping at her as if she had just grown a second head or something.

"Dammit Rinku look what your toyin with your opponent has done!" Jin suddenly shouted at the boy as he used his wind to almost knock the boy off of his feet. He might have slammed Rinku into something if not for the fact that the wind demon was trying not to injure Yuki as he moved to grab the girl up in his arms and with a wicked flash of his fangs that all but screamed- _Do it again an I'll kill you, boyo-_ as the red haired demon removed Yuki from where she had been and quickly re deposited her on the bench and all but sat down on her to keep her there as Rinku looked back at him and shouted,

"Hey! I didn't expect her to take exception to something happening here. If you don't want her slapping people keep her away from the damn ring where she can't get hurt!"

Rinku opened his mouth to shout something back but upon seeing the wind demon bare his fangs at him, he abruptly shut his mouth and sighed as he rubbed the back of his neck and muttered, "Right. Right. I get it. My bad." He'd have to finish up his fight soon otherwise Jin would yank a knot in his tail the likes of which the demon kid doubted he'd ever get over.


	6. Chapter 6

"Ye shouldn't a've hit tha guy, Yuki-girl." Jin admonished his friend as he grasped the wrist of the hand that she had used to slap the ginger haired human in the ring with Rinku and turned it over so that he could check her palm. Noting with a low growl that the soft ivory colored skin was an angry red looking color.

"For all we know he's th type to hold grudges. Wha if he catches you alone after this?" _Assuming of course that Rinku lets him live to fight another day_ , Jin's mind pointed out as he gently released the girl's wrist as she gave him an unapologetic look.

Not the least bit concerned about what she had done or what the repercussions may be.

Sighing Jin reached out and tucked a strand of her dark hair behind her ear and took a moment to look his friend over. Pregnancy aside, Yuki looked almost as well as she had before she had been attacked. Well, physically anyways. But there were subtle differences in her behavior as well as subtle differences in what she wore.

His girl had always been a fan of things that were well, cute-ish, as far as clothing went. She had always preferred the more feminine styles to what she was wearing now.

Her usual outfit mainly consisting of ribbons, lace, bead work flowers, ruffles and skirts that generally fell to her knees. Where as her current outfit was a teal long sleeved shirt with jeans and ankle length leather boots with small heels, and around her neck...

She had taken to wearing a leather collar with a big silver loop and buckle on it.

He and the lads suspected that she had taken to wearing the ghastly item due to the neck injury that had almost killed her. A way of hiding the scar so that she didn't have to see it and remember what had been done to her.

Reaching out a clawed finger, he slipped it along the small space between her soft skin and the supple leather of the collar and tugged slightly to get her to look at him. And when she did, he merely gave her a small smile and then leaned in and kissed her on the forehead before releasing her and saying, "Ye carry precious cargo Yuki-girl. Ye need to be mar careful." His accent had become more noticeable in the past few moments, a sure sign that he was either becoming upset or pissed.

Yuki could never really tell which one since he had this bad tendency to act the same way regardless.

Still...

If he was taking the time to caution her, then she should probably listen to him since he didn't do so often. Glancing up at him from under her bangs, Yuki nibbled on her lower lip as she debated on whether or not she should say something. But then inwardly cringed at the idea of speaking since her vocal chords had been damaged when her rapist had slashed her throat.

Instead of the voice that she'd had before, she now possessed a soft breathy/husky voice that made her guys act funny whenever they heard it.

And she wasn't talking about ha-ha funny either.

She meant, running and hiding away in the bathroom and using all of her lotion to- She had to stop her train of thought right there since she wasn't half as dumb as they thought she was about what they were doing with the stuff. She just wished they'd stop it or at the very least clean up after themselves better.

But then she supposed that awkward things like that were bound to occur from time to time since all of the demon's that had been living with her for the past five in a half years were all hot blooded, healthy males whom had all obviously spent far too much time in her presence.

Yusuke completely ignored all the going's on in favor of learning more about Yuki's health and once he was finally ready, looked at her through glowing icy blue eyes. Smirking a little bit he was able to ascertain that she was in fact pregnant. He could see the color of the infant's spirit energy.

A pale glittering green centered around her stomach. Where as Yuki herself had a peculiar soft purple color spirit energy that flared from time to time before dying out a bit almost like Kurama or Kuwabara's did.

"Hey Kurama," He called out without looking away from her, causing the fox demon/human hybrid to blink at him before replying.

"Yes, Yusuke."

"What does it generally mean if a person's spirit energy continuously flares then dies down to almost nothing?" He was sure that he had a pretty good idea what it meant, but it never hurt to have confirmation. Right?

Kurama tilted his head to the side as he regarded the spirit detective curiously for a moment before saying, "It means that the person who's spirit energy is doing such a thing- is someone very spiritually aware. A very powerful psychic, or even someone like-"

"Kuwabara." Yusuke cut him off with a slight nod of his head, his eyes still locked on the young girl from the opposite team. "Right got it. Thanks man." Yusuke said as he more or less dismissed him, however Kurama had other idea's now that his interest was even more piqued.

"What do you see Yusuke?" He asked curiously as he came to stand next to the dark haired teen.

"Her spirit energy is incredibly strong. Hell even her-" Yusuke stopped himself because he wasn't sure if he should say anything about Yuki's condition to Kurama. Knowing what little bit he knew of the fox demon and the affection that he held for mother's...he wasn't all that sure that he could trust his friend to stay away from her.

Come to think of it he wasn't all that sure that he'd stay away from her to begin with. Which more or less made her competition.

"Her what Yusuke?" Kurama prompted as Yusuke let his energy slowly drain from his eyes, returning them to their normal dark color.

"Nothing," Yusuke said as he glanced back towards the ring and frowned. "Isn't Kuwabara done yet?"

"No. But then he is a fairly stubborn person." Kurama said with a soft chuckle.

"Stubborn doesn't even begin to cover it." Yusuke muttered as Kuwabara began dragging himself across the ring by his chin causing the tired demon kid to scream and try to run away from him.


	7. Chapter 7

Kuwabara was having trouble focusing on his fight.

His mind was too full of images playing in his head like some sort of sick horror film. And the most peculiar thing of all- was that each image was of the dark haired girl that had struck him. It was as if by hitting him, she had accidentally transferred some of her thoughts, feelings, and emotions straight to his brain and kind of hijacked it.

Which was probably why he was doggingly chasing the demon kid around the arena, dragging his body with his chin until he finally managed to corner the damn brat and was about to reach out and ask what had happened to the girl when the memory of her attack finally hit him.

Driving the air from his lungs like one of Urameshi's punches while the kid decided to bail out on their match and flung himself at the slightly startled girl wailing and crying only to wind up being plucked from mid air and handed off to the girl so that she didn't suffer any unnecessary harm by one of the other demon's.

The match was called by the ref, and Kuwabara was hauled to his feet, feeling weak and nauseous. Both his mind and body a wreck as he was declared the winner of the match (despite having stayed down on his stomach or back trying to catch his breath for most of it).

"Yeah! Go Kuwabara!" Yusuke finally seemed to come back to himself long enough to shout as the very last few images flashed through the orange haired teen's head.

They were images of her bumping into Urameshi. And in that moment it was as if he were looking through _her_ eyes. And it was so damned creepy. Really it was. Seeing the sudden spark of interest in Urameshi's dark gaze, feeling it through his touch as he held her and gently spoke to her.

Trying to establish a small bond with her through gentle coaxing.

It kind of made his feel queasy. Ya know, since Urameshi was a teenage boy and he was a teenage boy- and he _knew_ what had to be going through his dark haired rival's mind.

Even now when his fight was over and Yusuke was walking over to congratulate him and help him down out of the ring- his dark eyes weren't straying far from the girl across from them.

He had half a mind to deck the bastard for thinking whatever he was thinking about the poor girl. But instead decided to merely advise him, waiting until Yusuke had one of his arms around his neck and was helping him move over to the medical tent before he bothered speaking. His voice was low, soft, and so very wary sounding that he had Yusuke's immediate attention.

"Don't do it..." Yusuke turned his head slightly to look at him, his expression questioning as Kuwabara said, "Whatever your interest in that girl is- let it go. She's damaged, Urameshi. And on top of that she's pregnant too. She doesn't need you attempting anything or sniffing around her skirt. You'll only wind up hurting her or something if you do."

Carefully easing his schoolmate/teammate/rival/ personal annoyance to the ground, Yusuke took a moment to consider his words before saying. "Part of me already knows that Kuwabara. I just don't care much right now."

"You don't care if you hurt her!" Kuwabara fairly shouted at him, startling Yusuke as he put his hands up and shook his head slowly from side to side before saying,

"Whoa, take it easy there champ. That isn't what I meant. My interest in her is strictly personal, and isn't up for debate or discussion- however if there's one thing I wouldn't do- and that's hurt her..."

"What do you mean?"

"Just what I said. I won't hurt her."

"And what about everything?"

"Like I said before, my interest in her is strictly personal. But if I ever feel like talking about it- I'll let you know." Yusuke said as he got up and turned and walked off. Leaving his teammate to wonder about what he meant while he was being patched up.


	8. Chapter 8

**Dear, Himeko63 and my other readers-**

 **I'll try to update a bit more in the next weeks, but be patient with me.**

 **I've been running a fever of over a hundred and three for almost a week now. And on top of that, I haven't been sleeping the past few days. So I'm _really_ tired. **

(******************************************************************************************************************************************************************)

A few hours later-

Team Urameshi had won their first match and defeated their opponents _badly_. And while Yusuke himself seemed oblivious to the devastation of the demon's. His teammates weren't. Rinku had sat beside the human girl and held her hand through out the entire time. Occasionally shooting her concerned/worried looks.

Making anyone with eyes more than a little curious as to what the human had to do with anything.

But Kuwabara knew.

And when Kurama and Hiei had approached him to ask what he had felt from the other team during his fight, he hadn't told them anything aside from the fact that they needed to keep Yusuke away from the girl. And while Kurama could appreciate the fact that she was too much of an unneeded distraction for the teen, he could also appreciate other _specific_ dilemma's.

His human body was also feeling a little bit of a... _pull._ Which is the only real way that he could describe it, towards the girl. And human's, being the typically hormone driven beings that they were, seemed to love the thrill of the hunt for their own sort of prey.

Prey of course meaning, females.

So naturally, Kurama could understand the appeal that the girl represented to Yusuke. However unlike him, he had no intentions of getting involved with her on any level since it was a well known fact that kitsune demon's were notorious for attempting to befriend females, and later on down the line winding up mated to them.

And unlike many other species of demon...kitsune's mated for life which was why he planted himself exactly as far away from the ring and the other team and that _girl_ as he could. While somehow managing to keep Yusuke well within sights as the bruised and bloody teen slowly began to walk over to where their day's opponent's had been sitting through most of the fights.

The demon's that his team had fought that day were crowded around the girl, the kid was in her lap quietly sobbing while the two demon's that Kurama and he had fought were both on their knees in front of her.

The demon that Kurama had fought against earlier, Toya, had his head resting on Yuki's leg and she was doing her best to try and comfort him and the kid in her lap while the big guy with the mohawk, Chu, was quietly apologizing over and over again.

It was a peculiar sight to be sure, but one that made Yusuke curious.

Pausing for a moment, several feet away from the small group, he began to silently debate with himself on whether or not this was the wisest course of action to take at the moment. The voice in his head was practically shouting at him to get Yuki alone even if it was just for a few minutes.

Finally one of the demon's, the one that Kuwabara had fought against earlier, noticed he was standing there and let out a furious cat-like hiss and jumped out of Yuki's arms so suddenly that he startled her to the point where if she hadn't have had a demon's head on her knee, she would have surly have fallen backwards off of the bench.

"What are _you_ doing here?!" The kid (Rinku, wasn't it?) spat at him, causing Chu and Toya to turn to him and wait for his reply.

Yusuke thought for a moment, and wondered if he should simply come out and ask the guys if he could steal Yuki for a bit. Maybe take her and go grab some lunch or something? However he was reluctant to say anything right away because they might object to him asking her out.

Then again, maybe it would be okay since despite defeating Chu and Toya- the two held no animosity towards him or Kurama. So maybe things would work out.

He hoped.

"I came to ask if it would be alright if I took your friend out to lunch or something." He said awkwardly as he scratched his cheek and waited for someone to say something when the kid snarled at him and grabbed Yuki around the waist and started shouting,

"No! No way! You beat the crap out of us and then expect us to give Yuki to you. Are you insane?! You've _ruined_ everything!"

"Rinku, shut up!" Toya finally snapped at the boy when he finally managed to shake himself of his stupor. "We may be on friendlier terms with team Urameshi but that doesn't mean that we should embarrass Yuki publicly by acting like savages... She's worked hard to knock some manners into your thick skull _boy_ , so you better damn well use them."

Rinku fell silent and began sniffling a bit as Chu finally said, "What Toya said may be true Urameshi, but we're wary of letting our favorite little sheila out of our sight. After all, this island is a sanctuary for demons. And unlike us guys, Yuki is a defenseless human girl-"

"I know. And I understand what your saying. Really I do. Now I need you guys to know something, I'm interested in your girl. I know that she has spiritual awareness that is much greater than an average person, and yeah, that would sort of cause some issues with some of the natives around here. And I also know that she's...uh..." He paused for a moment and hesitated to go any further without first figuring out what to say to them to explain how he knew of her condition before figuring that he could just say it was something he figured out either from being around women in the family way, or because he could sense the little tyke's energy.

Technically speaking he wouldn't be lying either way.

"I-I know that Yuki's pregnant. I can sort of sense the little one so I know that there are specific things that expectant mother's need."

Chu and Rinku and Toya all gaped at him with horrified expressions on their faces. Which was a little bit of a bummer since he hadn't totally expected their reactions to him knowing such a thing would be quite so- so _peculiar_.

"Anyways, I'm not planning to back down on this or run away or give up. I want to get to know Yuki whether as a friend or something else- I haven't exactly figured out yet since I thought that maybe she could meet me half way on that particular subject. And I know you guy want to protect her, I even respect that. So much so that if you really feel that you can't trust her alone with me then I want you guys to join us. We can meet in an hour or two in the hotel lobby and we can either eat there, or someplace else on the island. I'll pay for everything, so no one has to worry about that..."

"That's a very kind and...very _peculiar_ offer Urameshi." Toya began before Chu cut in.

"And we do appreciate it. However-"

Rinku was the one who cut in next, "It's Yuki's call. We simply follow her lead."

Everyone looked at Yuki and noted the _deer-in-the-headlights_ look on her pretty face before she quickly masked it and gave everyone an somewhat nervous looking smile before she said in a soft and husky sounding voice that Yusuke found mesmerizing to hear, "T-That sounds nice..."

Yusuke tilted his head slightly to the side and studied her for a moment before asking, just to make sure. "So you're in?"

"Uh...yeah, I-I guess."

He smiled at her and stuffed his hands in his pants pockets and rocked back on his heels for a moment before asking, "Okay. So when do you wanna meet?"

"Two hours?" She said it as a question after taking a quick glance around at her friends and frowning a bit. She would need at least that long to patch them all up and coax at least Rinku and Chu into taking a shower. And then she would have to see about letting Jin know so that he could join them.

Sighing, she already felt exhausted and she hadn't even done anything yet.

"Cool," Yusuke said with a grin. "That'll give us all some time to hopefully take care of our injuries and get cleaned up and change our clothes. Do you wanna meet in the hotel lobby?"

"Uh...sure. That would be fine." Yuki said as she felt herself beginning to blush a bit.

Yusuke smiled at her and gave a small wave as he turned and walked away from them. He had a lot to do in a short amount of time if he was going to 'wow' Yuki.


	9. Chapter 9

Yuki was looking up into Jin's _furious_ looking blue/violet colored eyes and wanted to cringe.

The wind demon had only looked at her in such a way twice in all the years that she had known him. The first day that they had met. And again the day that she had learned that she was pregnant. Although his glares and some of the looks he gave her tended to be a tad bit more misleading than usual.

Today though, she felt that this look was right on the mark.

 _He. Was. Pissed!_

Behind her were Toya and Chu, just sort of hanging back and letting her talk to him however remaining present for the eventuality that he may flip out on them. That way they could get her the hell out of harms way and knock some damned sense back into her friend if need be.

"And ye agreed to this Yuki-girl?" Jin spoke quietly. But she flinched as if he were shouting right in her face. She wasn't sure why, but he just had that effect on her sometimes.

She hesitated for a moment and glanced over her shoulder at the others only to feel a clawed fingertip against her jaw, making her turn back to face Jin. "Donna be looking at them girly. _Talk. To. Me_." The red headed wind demon said as he slid his hand back away from her jaw to thread his fingers through her dark hair.

"I did," Yuki said looking slightly uncomfortable under his unblinking stare. "But only because he extended the invitation to you and the others." She finally admitted in a rush.

Jin snorted before asking softly, his tone deceptively playful. "And do ya fancy him _Yuki-girl_?"

She looked at him. And frowned as she slowly shifted her weight from one foot to another as she thought. Did she 'fancy' the guy from team Urameshi? To be honest, she wasn't sure.

Now don't get her wrong, she was impressed by how he and his fellow teammates handled themselves in the ring. Each one had such amazing talent when it came to fighting. But the thing about fighter's was that they were always temperamental- sometimes even violent.

Sure there were exceptions. Like her guys. And while they weren't especially violent or temperamental- they were however clumsy.

And something told her that Yusuke Urameshi was anything but clumsy. He moved with a peculiar sort of practiced ease. Like someone who had really seen some seriously messed up shit and had grown up far too quickly because of it. But even so- she kept getting a strange vibe from him.

Not a bad one, mind you.

In fact the vibe that she picked up from him ranged from fierce protectiveness, possessive want, to sorrowful acceptance. Although why she felt that particular vibe from him, she had no idea.

Feeling clawed hands gently grip her shoulders, Yuki blinked as she was bought back to the present to find Jin staring a hole through her skull before realizing, _Oh yeah. She hadn't answered him yet?_

"I-I dunno. I don't know him."

His dark blue eyes narrowed at her slightly and he leaned down a bit until his face was just a few inches from her own as he growled out, "Bu ya wanna know em, donna ya?" His accent made it much more difficult to understand what he was saying to her, even though she gleaned his meaning from his tone.

And the fact that she was even a little bit willing to try and get to know Urameshi ticked the wind demon off.

After all, it was one thing to share Yuki with the other's- they owed their lives to her mercy. However sharing her with others outside of their little family was- well... _upsetting_.

He _knew_ what human males were like. He'd seen the damage they wrought first hand the day that he and the others found Yuki barely alive. What if the lad managed to get her alone? What if he was just like the one's that hurt her? What if he hit her or pushed her down and hurt the baby?

They were all valid worries and fears. And frankly he thought he was being fair enough by just letting the lad continue to _live_ after so much as looking at his Yuki-girl.

But even so, as reluctant as he was to let her go, he knew that this could be the first true step taken to help her heal. And holding her back from that chance would just be wrong. So finally after several heartbeats of silence Jin finally sighed and relented.

"I may not like this any, but I have no right to hold you back if it's something that you feel you should do. So I'll go with the rest of ya to check the lad out."

"You will?"

"Aye."

"You won't pick a fight?"

"Nay Yuki-girl. Tis'll be yer first date. I'll behave me self until he starts making a move on ye." And when that happened, he'd nail the little bastard. Yuki nodded her head and gave him one of his favorite smiles.

The kind that both dazzled and left him feeling weak in the knees, and then turned and quickly ran into her room and closed the door, so that she could get ready no doubt.


	10. Chapter 10

Yusuke didn't bother speaking to anyone about anything concerning his actions with the rival team's human girl. That shit wasn't anyone's affair but his own and Yuki's as far as he was concerned. However the second that he and the other's reached their hotel room, he could sense that Kurama and Hiei and Kuwabara wanted to begin interrogating him.

So to distract them from doing so, he promptly began stripping while making his way to the bathroom to get cleaned up while wondering if the island had a floral shop somewhere that he could check out.

If so then he'd like to get Yuki some flowers.

Something nice with white lilies, some pink and cornflower blue bachelor buttons, some pink or green snap dragons and baby's breath all bound together by a nice silk ribbon. After all it was his first date with the girl, even if it did come with chaperones, and he wanted to make a good impression.

The room was quiet, except for Kuwabara's occasional muttering under his breath and Yusuke couldn't help but smirk a little bit since it seemed that his diabolical plan to avoid confrontation with the others was working. Which is a shame really, he'd only managed to lose his shirt and shoes and unbutton his pants in preparation of dropping them when Kurama and Hiei suddenly remembered that they needed to be somewhere else and vanished into thin air.

Leaving the mask fighter and Kuwabara for him to deal with.

The masked fighter wasn't an issue since the little guy seemed to want very much to keep to himself and for all appearances didn't want to snoop in Yusuke's love life.

And with Kuwabara no longer looking like he had something to say, Yusuke merely shrugged his shoulders and went about collecting some clean clothing before realizing that his clothes while comfortable- weren't good enough for him to wear to a five star restaurant. Much less show up with a date.

He'd have to ask Koenma to do him a favor, he sighed as he set his things down and then turned and left, only bending down for a moment to snatch up his jacket from where it had fallen earlier and made his way to the door to leave.

He had just opened the door to step out when he found his way blocked by old pacifier breath himself.

Koenma was standing there in his adult form, with several things in black bags and some shoe boxes in his arms. Yusuke blinked and wondered idly if the guy had decided to go native and was toting bodies around when Koenma thrust the bags and boxes into his empty arms and said, "Here. You'll need these in the days to come." And then turned and walked off.

Leaving Yusuke to stand there with his arms full of _something_ as he disappeared.

(*********************************************************************************************************************************************)

Kurama and Hiei landed deftly on the ledge outside of the hotel rooms of the rival team that they had fought against earlier that day, both demon's feeling an odd combination of curiosity and anger at Yusuke's careless actions.

Did the spirit detective enjoy courting death? They both wondered for perhaps the hundredth time in the past hour or so. Because it was looking more and more to them as if he did. However this time the threat wasn't to him alone- it was to what they held dear as well.

The Toguro brothers had made each member of the team an offer that they simply couldn't refuse.

Fight in the demon world tournament and possibly die in the ring... Or all of their family and friends would perish.

Kuwabara's older sister and friends had been threatened. Hiei's twin sister had been threatened. And for Kurama, well, his mother had been threatened.

And while the two normally didn't let such things bother them- they had been backed into a corner. Hiei had searched and fought his entire life just to find his sister. He would no sooner give her up to the cold grasp of death than Kurama had when his mother had fallen ill months ago.

It was perhaps because of their demon nature's. Or perhaps it was simply because demon's felt emotions more keenly than humans.

Both were unsure. All that they knew was that Yusuke was becoming distracted from their goal and that was placing not only themselves but everyone that they gave a damn about in grave danger.

Which was why both had come to this particular place.

They wished to know just what the girl had done to rob Yusuke of his senses. So they decided to observe her. And if that proved to not be enough- then they would kidnap her. Worst case scenario, they wound up killing her.

It didn't matter to Hiei any. To Kurama however- killing the girl just felt wrong. Even if the deed wasn't being carried out right at that moment- it simply left a bad taste in his mouth.

Shifting on the ledge outside of the bedroom, both males made themselves comfortable so that they could watch the girl.

"What do you think we'll find?" Hiei asked in an almost bored tone as he watched Kurama pull a thin piece of leather chord from his pants pocket and begin to pull his long wild looking mane back into a ponytail at his nape. So that they wouldn't be discovered due to his hair blowing in the wind, Hiei assumed.

"I'm not sure." Kurama finally replied as he slowly lowered his arms and turned his attention back to the window, he could hear someone moving about in the room that they were outside of. Peering around the corner he was using as cover, both he and Hiei saw that the person in the room was the girl that they had come to watch.

And while that was all well and good, Kurama almost threw himself off of the ledge that he was perched upon the second that he realized that the female was standing with her back to them. Her wet hair was up in a twist, held in place by a hair clip and her body...

 _Dear god-_ His eyes widened in shock and his mouth went dry. His heart jumped in his chest to almost a painful degree causing the red head to wince slightly and lift a hand to absently rub at the spot through his clothing as he took note of the scars littering the girl's body.

It looked like someone had taken _claws_ to the tender skin of her back! And though he knew that the injuries were old, perhaps even months old, many still looked like they were still on the verge of completely healing.

Even Hiei looked more than a little shell shocked at the small discovery.

After all, they both knew that the likelihood of a demon doing something like that to a human, and then having said human survive- were practically nil.

And yet there she stood, the exception... It was no damn wonder Yusuke was interested in her. Even if he didn't know about the scars by sight, he may have picked up on the wounds with his spirit energy or something. Which Kurama would have to admit, would be rather impressive of the human boy since the only other two reasons he could think of to logically explain away Yusuke's odd behavior since running into the girl were 1) hormones. And then there was 2) A soul mate's bond.

If the reason for Yusuke's interest had anything to do with number two then things were going to get even more messy, fairly quickly since he wouldn't be able to stay away from her. And nothing that he or anyone else would keep him from her unless of course she was killed. And even then- it still might not keep him from her.

Quietly muttering several choice oaths under his breath, he buried his face in his palm for a moment to try and quell his slight panic and when he removed his hand to tell Hiei that he was leaving he found himself-

1) with Hiei suddenly MIA. And of course there was number two (perhaps the worst of either) in his opinion. He found himself staring into the pale aqua eyes of Toya as he peered out the window at him.

His expression a weird combination of curious and unamused.

 _Son of a bitch-_ "Hello, Toya." He said with a slightly strained smile and an awkward little wave before stating lamely, "Nice weather we're having..." At which the water and ice demon only narrowed his pale eyes at him, making Kurama wish that he had enough room on the ledge to _actually_ squirm.

And a fire demon to throttle.


	11. Chapter 11

Toya regarded his _sort of_ new friend with a calculating stare.

He couldn't believe that he had actually caught the fox demon spying on them. Well no- that wasn't exactly right. He had been spying on Yuki. Not the rest of them. Which meant that his normal blasé attitude about things must have been tripped up when Yusuke had began to show an interest in the girl.

Sighing, Toya reached out and took hold of Kurama's jacket sleeve firmly in between his fingers and tugged lightly enough for the slightly panicked fox demon to realize that he had decided not to simply shove him off of the ledge and kill him for his transaction. Even though he was well within his rights to do so- But was in actuality attempting to safely pull him inside of the hotel room where he currently stood.

Figuring that it was best not to attempt to put up a fight this time around, Kurama sighed and carefully maneuvered his body so that he could climb into the room.

And once safely inside, Toya then shut the window and turned to him. His pale eyes pinning him to the floor as he crossed his arms over his chest and said, "Explain."

The one word practically screaming, _Explain your stupid actions fox!_ Causing Kurama to inwardly cringe and then nervously begin to fidget with his fingers. An type of behavior that he had thought he had broken himself of, but obviously not if he was doing it _now_.

But then, Kurama was rather uncomfortable under the other demon's scrutiny.

Toya began tapping his foot as he counted the minutes. Hoping that whatever excuse Kurama would give him was a good one since Chu and Rinku were still attempting to distract Jin somewhere in the other room while Yuki got dressed in the outfit that had been delivered to her a little while ago by Koenma.

The son of King Yama. And ruler of the spirit world.

"Forgive me Toya, but I was curious about your young friend since my teammate seems to be quite taken with her." Toya arched a brow at him as if to say, _Oh?_ But remained silent as he waited for Kurama to continue on. However that- it seemed- was the entirety of his explanation in an nutshell.

He was curious because his teammate liked Yuki.

Idiot. _Does he really think he can lie to me?_ Toya wondered as he debated on calling Kurama on his bullshit answer when the door across the room opened and Yuki stepped out wearing a lovely teal dress with long sleeves, a heart shaped bodice and ankle length skirt with shimmering pink pastel bead work.

Dropping his arms to his sides, he took a moment to look the girl over noting various things about her appearance that he had never noticed before.

She was...for lack of a better word, _beautiful_.

But of course she had always been such to him and the others. After all, she was their human.

And after a moment or so he noticed something else, she looked upset. As if she were about to cry. Moving away from Kurama, Toya walked over to her and very carefully wrapped his arms around her and began to speak to her. Asking yes and no questions before she finally admitted to him that she didn't wish to wear the dress.

She felt to exposed.

And feeling exposed left her feeling more vulnerable than normal. Which was never a good thing since she usually wound up locking herself away from him and the others, refusing to speak, to eat or drink, or to even rest when she needed too.

Toya suspected that it had to do with what had happened to her, however he had never truly voiced his thoughts on the matter.

He would however agree with her now- if she didn't wish to wear the dress- then no one was going to make her. So after pulling away from her for a moment, he walked over to the dresser with her clothing in it and pulled out a pair of pants and a skirt and at least three shirts. One of which seemed to straddle the fence as either casual or formal wear.

Laying the items on the bed he stepped back so that she could choose what she wanted and almost chuckled when she automatically grabbed the pants and the shirt that could be used for either formal or casual occasions and then quickly disappeared.

Leaving him to place her things back into the dresser before returning to Kurama whom had been watching everything with more than a little curiosity.

"What happened to her?" Kurama asked, not trying to be rude per say, merely trying to understand why a group of demon's would treat a human girl with such delicacy and care.

"It's none of your business." Toya said, his voice hard. His tone brooked no argument.

He would not have Kurama questioning Yuki or himself or the others on the girl's past and reopening old wounds. She was just starting to show some improvement. Her health was no longer failing her. She was alive and for the first time since meeting her- he could actually see that she wished to live. Not simply go through the motions.

"I beg to differ," Kurama said despite the subtle warning not to question things any further. "As long as the possibility exists that she and Yusuke may become...involved... Then as his teammate and friend I have the right to know."

Toya cast him an icy look as the bathroom door opened again and the girl walked out wearing her new outfit, a nice cream colored long sleeved knit sweater with pale green vines running along the front, with soft pink, and blue flowers spotting it here and there, and a pair of jeans.

Her hair had been pulled back in a twist that was held into place at the back of her head by a floral hair piece. She didn't bother with make-up. She didn't really need it in Toya's opinion.

She was lovely enough to turn heads without the stuff.

Walking a little further into the room, Yuki seemed to notice Kurama for the first time and paused for a moment. Her body tensing as it went totally still. Her teal colored eyes flickering from the tall red head to her friend warily.

Noting her discomfort, Kurama attempted a friendly little finger wiggle as his chest began to ache as he tried to come across as less threatening to her- then maybe she would relax as his mind ran through different scenario's in the hopes of figuring out just why she seemed to be so damn scared of him.

It didn't take him long to figure out that she wasn't exactly scared of him, but of his gender. Had he been born a female, she obviously wouldn't have felt as frightened of him as she currently did.

Not only that but his gender as well as the horrible scars that he and Hiei had seen helped him put more pieces of the puzzle that the girl represented, together.

Turning to Toya, Kurama muttered woodenly. "I retract my former question. Enjoy you're dinner with Yusuke." And with that he slipped back out of the window and disappeared before either Toya nor Yuki could react.


	12. Chapter 12

_Rape._

It was one of the most malicious, evil and vilely accused things to ever occur to a woman.

And in Kurama's opinion, any who committed such an act should be strung up by their insides while still alive enough to feel their tool being devoured by hell hounds.

Exhaling the breath he'd been holding for the past several seconds in an effort to keep the bile burning the back of his throat from coming up again, he looked down at the bushes where he'd spent the next few minutes retching and used the back of one hand to wipe at his mouth subconsciously as his mind turned back to the girl, Yuki and he began replaying everything he knew so far.

But rape wasn't all that she had suffered...

It was true. His human self may have managed to distance him from a lot in the past fifteen years, however certain knowledge still occasionally popped into his mind thanks entirely to Yoko. And if Yoko knew enough to recognize what the scars on her body signified, then so did he.

Torture.

The poor girl had not only been raped but tortured as well.

He wondered if Yusuke had somehow sensed something from her and that was the reason for his interest. After all, teenage male hormones would only do so much for the situation.

He inwardly cringed at the appalling thought before thinking, _Probably not_. Still there had to have been a reason why Yusuke had been so insistent on getting close to the girl.

 _But what?_

What could his possible reason be? Kurama wondered curiously as he straightened his spine and made a quick decision to seek out his teammate and further investigate. Breathing deep, the fox demon closed his eyes for a moment and used his other senses to locate Yusuke's current location.

(******************************************************************************************************************************************)

After dressing himself in a semi formal suit consisting of white/grey slacks, and a nice crisp white shirt with a white/grey tie and some shoes the same color. Yusuke had then brushed his hair- however hadn't slicked it back like he normally did.

After all, if he was going to start a relationship of any kind with Yuki he needed to trust her enough to see him. Not the badass punk with the snotty personality, but the _real_ him. He needed her to see him as a person, not as someone who simply fought all of the damn time.

After finishing up, he had then left the hotel room. Careful to avoid Kuwabara and the Masked Fighter, since he didn't feel like fucking up all of his work on getting ready for his date with some idiot blood, and then used the slip of paper that he had found among the different suits and such naming the location of a local florist shop.

Making his way out of the hotel, he got half way to the florist shop when Kurama suddenly appeared out of nowhere and fell into step beside him.

"Kurama." Yusuke greeted receiving a nod of acknowledgement from the fox demon before saying warily, "You didn't come here to try and talk me out of my date... Did you?"

"No. I know how set you are on this. I merely wanted to ask permission to join you since the other team will be there."

"I did say that the option was open." Yusuke said as he glanced over at his friend from the corner of his eyes and saw the red head nod before he asked curiously.

"Very well. Where are we going?"

"To the local florist shop," Yusuke said, not the least embarrassed to admit that particular fact to his friend when any other time he'd be blushing to the roots of his hair. "I wanted to get some flowers for Yuki."

"You...seem to be quite taken with the young lady." Kurama said in an friendly teasing manner that Yusuke pretty much killed when he sent the demon into shock with his next words.

"I plan to marry the girl." Causing Kurama to pretty much trip over his own feet in shock before Yusuke could catch him and pull him back upright. "And do you mind? Tripping is all well and good if you're trying to be funny but I worked really hard to look nice for this dinner date with Yuki. I don't want to screw things up by showing up in a dirty and torn suit." Yusuke snapped at Kurama as he started walking again.

Leaving the fox demon to stare at his back for several seconds as he replayed Yusuke's last words in his mind, still in shock from them.

He planned to marry the girl?


	13. Chapter 13

"Y-You plan to marry her?" Kurama couldn't have sounded more gobsmacked if he tried, Yusuke noted in amusement as he continued walking. Giving Kurama ample time to recover before he came running up behind him and asked again in a more insistent tone.

"You plan to marry her?"

Yusuke flashed him a grin. "Isn't that the normal outcome of wooing someone?"

 _"You're wooing her?"_ Kurama's normally silky voice went up so much that he half choked half squeaked out the words causing the spirit detective to snicker at him.

His dark eyes alight with mischief as they reached the floral shop and Yusuke turned his attention back to his current task rather than satiating Kurama's curiosity and after spending several moments hand picking the flowers he intended to hand to Yuki in a little while, he and Kurama left the shop to head back to the hotel.

Where the fox disappeared, running for the elevator as if his tail were on fire or something.

Leaving Yusuke to his own vices for a little while. Which was fine, the date would start in another ten minutes or so. So whatever it was that had had Kurama running like the hounds of hell were nipping at his heels had better get done quickly. Otherwise Yusuke would be going on his date sans the parental supervision of his demonic teammates.

Looking down at the bouquet of flowers that he had painstakingly selected, he really hoped that she liked what he had picked out for her. The only other person he had ever picked out flowers for had been his late sister.

His late baby sister- now she had been a sunflower gal.

Yuki, though, she looked to him more like a lily girl.

Which was why the main flowers in the bouquet were pink tiger lilies surrounded by sweet smelling lavender scented roses, some cornflower blue bachelor buttons, baby's breath and some greenery. All in all it was a rather nice- if bigger than expected- bouquet.

(*****************************************************************************************************************************************)

"Are you sure that you wish to do this Yuki?" Toya asked again for what must have been the umpteenth time in the past few minutes since she and the rest of her friends had entered the elevator to go downstairs to the dining area of the hotel.

Each dressed in their finest clothing so that they wouldn't accidentally embarrass her.

Why even Chu and Rinku had taken baths and changed into suits with ties for the occasion! _Ties_ for gods sake. And despite the fact that they both looked impressive all decked out as they were, Yuki couldn't help but think that this date was a disaster waiting to happen.

Partially because Jin was in a fairly foul mood after Toya had told them that he had caught Kurama spying on her earlier. That and he probably intended to hold the actions of Yusuke's teammate against him. Whereas the others somehow managed to wrangle a promise out of him to at least make an attempt to act civilly while they all ate dinner with Urameshi.

"Yes," She finally replied before quickly tacking on. "Please stop asking that, you're starting to make me feel nervous." Jin put his hands up, palms out, in a placating gesture deciding that he had asked her enough to make sure that she wasn't having second thoughts about this... _date_ with the Urameshi boy.

"Very well, I'll no ask again Yuki-girl." Jin said as he dropped his arms as the elevator came to a stop after finally reaching the ground floor with a ding mere seconds before the doors slid open.

The group stepped out of the elevator and started walking towards the dining area, despite the fact that they were about five minutes or so early- and they weren't expecting anyone to already be waiting on them. So naturally it was a little bit of a surprise when Urameshi came into view, wearing a suit and holding a bouquet of nice flowers.

The moment the young human's dark eyes locked on their Yuki and he smiled at her, their girl almost damn near tripped over her own feet from shock. Causing all of them to reach out and grasp her wrists and arms to automatically steady her so that she didn't wind up falling and accidentally injuring herself or the baby as Urameshi started walking towards them and came to a stop not even three feet from their Yuki-girl.

"Hey, you okay?" He asked, trying hard to hide his concern behind his excitement. But both emotions were at the moment, oddly at war within him, and his concern was quickly killing whatever excitement he had been feeling towards the date as he thought that perhaps he should have asked for a more comfortable and less stress free setting.

Like her friends hotel room for their date.

It wasn't like he would have expected them to be alone anyways. Not with the somewhat dark looks he was getting from Toya and the red haired demon with the horn standing just behind Yuki, anyways. The group was far too protective of her and simply either didn't like him or care that he was trying to weasel his way into her affections.

Yuki seemed to freeze up as she looked up at Yusuke, her pale face coloring a fetching shade of soft pink to show her embarrassment at being seen in such a way.

Tripping over one's feet like a fool just wasn't a good way to make a good impression.

Yusuke noted the stiffness of her spine and limbs and cleared his throat before saying, "Here. This is yours." As he held out the bouquet for her to take. She reached for it slowly. _Very slowly._ Almost as if she were worried that he might try and grab her or something.

This worried Yusuke, though he kept his thoughts to himself as Yuki said a polite thank you and buried her face in the flowers for a moment as Yusuke offered his arm to her and politely asked if he could escort her to their table. Yuki dropped the bouquet away from her face a little bit so that she could smile at him as she reached out and took the arm that he kindly and patiently offered.

Once her hand was settled on his arm, he gave her a charming smile and then began to lead her and the others into the hotel dining area where the restaurant was as he easily chatted with Chu who had asked if he would be eating alone with them.

Yusuke was completely honest with them. He was expecting at least a _few_ of his teammates or friends to show up- but at the moment they likely were busy either hunting someone down or trying to get ready.


End file.
